My basic opinion on this is that animals and humans are different. And animals and animals are different. A cow has the right to live out its life as a cow, because a cow is what it is. A fish has the right to live out its life as a fish, because a fish is what it is. A human has the right to live out its life as a human, because a human is what it is. All these arguments seem to be saying that the only way we can make animals seem valuable is to claim that they're the same as people. I disagree -- every being is valuable for being what it is. I don't need "cows are just like people" as a preliminary step to "cows are valuable."

My basic opinion on this is that animals and humans are different. And animals and animals are different. A cow has the right to live out its life as a cow, because a cow is what it is. A fish has the right to live out its life as a fish, because a fish is what it is. A human has the right to live out its life as a human, because a human is what it is. All these arguments seem to be saying that the only way we can make animals seem valuable is to claim that they're the same as people. I disagree -- every being is valuable for being what it is. I don't need "cows are just like people" as a preliminary step to "cows are valuable."

Agree.

Times a million. It would be a whole lot better for everyone if we could find a way to stop assigning the value(s) of other creatures' experience in relation to that of humans.

I love that piece and highly recommend the Breeze Harper videos it links to as well.

"Nuanced examples require research and thoughtfulness that seems impossible to do in a simple graphic or a tweet. So their use following these guidelines would be well researched, vetted for accuracy, come from non-privileged folk, and be used sparingly."

That's basically what I was trying to get at earlier, but I'm not so great with the words. But I'd also take it a step further and say that declaring certain topics verbotten without considering context can disempower people who want to use their own history and experience.